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Damboa fire, 31 October 2017 Damboa, Askira Uba, Chibok

Out · last detection 12 Nov 2017, 12:23 UTC

The fire started on 31 October 2017 in Damboa, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 19,968 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 8th largest in Borno since 2016 (of 457 with a page). Number 2 in Nigeria in 2017, of 143.

Burnt area
19,968ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
31 Oct 2017 – 12 Nov 2017
Municipalities hit
4
local government areas
Started on
31 Oct
2017
Heat detections
676
in a single hotspot: 53 MW
Danger at start
38
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Nov 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Oct12 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

31123456789101112

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

35°high
36km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

38% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7,667 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Damboa where it started
    9,772 ha reached on 24 Oct
    2.0 %
  2. Askira Uba
    5,472 ha reached on 26 Oct
    2.0 %
  3. Chibok
    4,299 ha reached on 24 Oct
    3.4 %
  4. Gwoza
    551 ha reached on 26 Oct
    0.2 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
31 Oct 34.7 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
1 Nov 34.9 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Nov 34.9 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Nov 34.5 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Nov 34.8 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Nov 33.8 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Nov 33.4 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Nov 33.4 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 Nov 34.4 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Nov 34.0 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Nov 33.2 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Nov 34.9 °C 21 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
12 Nov 34.6 °C 17 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
13 Nov after 34.7 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Nov after 35.9 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
15 Nov after 35.8 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Nov after 36.5 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
17 Nov after 36.8 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Nov after 37.2 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Nov after 37.1 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Nov after 35.8 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Nov after 35.6 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
22 Nov after 34.3 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 24 Oct 2017
After · 19 Nov 2017

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 676Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Nigeria ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Damboa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 October 2017 and 12 November 2017: 13 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 19,968 hectares (199.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Damboa (9,772 ha, 2.0 %); Askira Uba (5,472 ha, 2.0 %); Chibok (4,299 ha, 3.4 %); Gwoza (551 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Nigeria (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 112

Satellite cross-check

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

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We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112.

Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.